


Waiting For You

by captainamergirl



Category: General Hospital
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-09
Updated: 2018-04-10
Packaged: 2019-04-20 03:15:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14251866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/captainamergirl/pseuds/captainamergirl
Summary: She knew she was falling in love with him. That's why she had to leave.





	1. Love Hurts

**Author's Note:**

> An AU Jax/Sam short story. I thought this couple had a lot of untapped potential and I like exploring the possibilities in fan fiction from time to time. Thanks for reading!

**1- Love Hurts**

_She left town because she was afraid._ Afraid to give her heart to another man and have it shattered like before. Love was a crapshoot anyway; it hurt too much, just like that old song said -- _“love hurts, love scars.”_   Ironically, that number was playing on the radio the day she climbed into her broken down Volvo and left Port Charles.  
  
Three years she spent out on the road. Three years in which there were a few other men on a few starless nights Shania Twain would have sung about, but mostly she was alone, traveling from place to place, a couple of times thinking about putting down roots somewhere but never being stupid enough to do so.  
  
She never planned to return to Port Charles. Not even when she opened a newspaper and read the headline **Billionaire Tycoon Engaged to Wed Alleged Mobster’s Ex-Wife**. Yes, she thought about him - she thought about him a lot, actually; still remembered the way his blue eyes used to darken with desire just for her; the way his lips tasted, the way they felt moving over her heated skin - but she had fought too long and too hard to put up these walls around her heart, to allow herself to give into her impulse to turn tail and run home now.  
  
Then she got the call from her mom. _“Sam, come home. I have cancer again and I want to say goodbye to you dammit.”_   She'd never heard her mother sound angrier. She was angry at Sam because Sam had been gone for so long; angry because her daughter had let her fears get the best of her - driven to cowering when things got rough (or even when they felt right, as they had when she was with him).  
  
So she climbed into her Volvo. In its downtrodden state, she was fortunate to make the whole drive to New York relatively unscathed. She walked into the hospital and past all of the curious eyes; the eyes that asked what had brought her back; how long she was going to stay this time; how she endured being the messed up, prodigal daughter of Port Charles’s most respected citizen.  
  
She hesitated at the door to her mother's room. Alexis sat up in bed. She looked frail and weak, but there was determination shining in her eyes as she said to Sam, “Get over here and hug me dammit.”  
  
Sam moved to her mother and they hugged and they cried. That was the first time either of them could truly allow themselves to give into the pain of their regrets. The weight of their bad decisions sat heavy on their shoulders. They mourned for all of the time that had been stolen from them and for all of the time they had thrown away running from each other; running from their bond.  
  
When they finally pulled apart, Alexis cupped her daughter’s chin in her frail hands, and said, “He’s getting married tomorrow, you know.”  
  
Sam thought about pretending she had no idea whom her mother was referring to, but she knew Alexis was too smart and knew her too well by now. Feigning ignorance was not going to get her out of this one.  
  
“I know,” Sam said. _“I know.”_  
  
“I’m in the wedding party,” Alexis said with a little laugh. “If I actually make it down the aisle, Jason is going to be my escort.”  
  
Sam watched Alexis, wondering what Alexis expected her reaction to be at the mention of the one who had scarred her so deeply that she ran from love in any form. Ran from it literally to the edge of California and to the borders of Canada. Trying to put miles between her heart and the one she truly ached for. The one who wasn’t Jason and hadn’t been in years and years.  
  
“You and Jason, Mom?” Sam smiled. “What a pair. I never thought I’d see the day you could walk arm in arm with him.”  
  
“You’re over him aren’t you, Sam?”  
  
Sam nodded. “Yes.” She was being honest for the first time in what felt like years. Her heart had stopped aching for Jason the minute she looked into another pair of crystalline eyes and saw true love and naked affection staring back at her.  
  
“Why did you run away then?”  
  
“I didn’t want to. I just felt like I had to.”  
  
“You were scared, Sam; you can admit it. Just like I am scared this disease is going to take me before I can see all of my girls grown up and happy. You included.”  
  
Sam didn’t say anything and Alexis sighed. “Sam, go and see him. Don’t be me. Don’t close yourself off to love because you’re afraid it will blow up in your face. Live for the day. _Carpe diem,_ as they say.”  
  
“It doesn’t matter now. You said it yourself. He’s getting married tomorrow. You’re even involved in the ceremony. Something which I’m sure Carly hates.”  
  
“She does, but if I thought she wanted this marriage as much as she thinks she does, I wouldn’t tell you to go see him. Now move off this bed right now and at least go wish him congratulations.”  
  
XoXoXo  
  
She walked up the path to his door, dreading and yet anticipating every step. It took her seemingly ages to gather up the nerve to knock.  
  
Jax opened the door. His eyes went wide as he took in the sight of her. Then he said, _“What took you so long?”_


	2. Making Our Own Music

** 2 - Making Our Own Music **   
  
"What took you so long?" He asked again, staring at her in seeming wonder.   
  
"I honestly didn't think you would want to see me again," she answered with a somewhat sheepish shrug.    
  
"No. I think you were just scared," he said and they stared at each other for a long moment, each taking in the sight of the one they had loved and lost and wanted back so badly. He was willing to take the first step as usual but she didn't want him to have to so she closed the distance between them and slowly slid her slender arms around his lean torso.   
  
"I missed you," he said. "Too much."   
  
"Me too," she said and as much as she loved the idea of him missing her, she hated it just as much because he had held on to the belief that she would come home for good when she wasn't even sure if she was sticking around. She didn't think she could. He was right; she  _was_ scared. No one could break her the way he could because in all honesty, she had never loved anyone the way she did him at this moment.   
  
"Come inside," he said, taking her hand and leading her into the big house with the big white picket fence and perfect, expensive décor. She had the sudden urge to run away again just at the sight of all of this apparent perfection, but managed to stand her ground.   
  
"I heard you're getting married," she said.    
  
"I am supposed to," he said, massaging his large fingers over her tiny knuckles. "I wish I could believe you came back to stop the wedding but I think I know better."   
  
"Jax, I -"   
  
"Don't say it, Sam, please. Not now. Don't say you're going. If you won't stay for me, if you won't fight for us, then at least stay for your mother. She's really sick as you probably well know."   
  
"I do," she admitted. "She also told me she's in the wedding party."   
  
"Yes and Carly hates it."   
  
"I bet," she said, smiling a bit. "Is it wrong that I love that she hates it?"   
  
Jax smiled too. "No, I guess not. Can I get you a drink?"   
  
"That would be great." She watched him move over to the wet bar as he began to fix a gin and tonic for her, just the way she liked it. He remembered her. He remembered her likes and her desires and her fears. He loved her but he could break her. She could easily break him again too and it wouldn't be fair; it wouldn't be right.   
  
"I'm sorry," she said.   
  
He looked over at her. "Me too," he said softly.   
  
"I am so sorry that I just walked out the way I did. That I hurt you. I'm sorry things couldn't be different."   
  
"Couldn't be or you don't want them to be?" He asked as he brought her the drink. Their fingers lightly brushed and her whole hand tingled all of the way up to her shoulder. She pulled away quickly then, not wanting to feel him, to know him the way she felt only she could.   
  
"Can't be," she finally said. "You're getting married and I'm -"   
  
"You're scared," he said again. "You think I'm just like all the other men who hurt you, don't you?"   
  
"It's not that -"   
  
"What is it then?" He asked, walking back to the bar and pouring a drink of his own.   
  
"I guess you're right, I am scared. But more than anything, I'm scared for you."   
  
"Why?"   
  
"Because I am scared to hurt you again. I am scared because I can never trust myself not to run again. I'm scared that I can't trust in us."   
  
"You could. You just don't want to," he said in a steely voice. Then he took a sip of his drink. "I would give you the moon, Sam."   
  
"I know, but eventually I'd have to come crashing back down to earth."   
  
He shook his head. "Dammit, Samantha! When are you going to figure out that you are everything to me? Always have been, always will be. When are you going to realize that I'm not Jason? That I'm not Sonny or any of the other men from your past. I'm not perfect but I could never hurt you the way they did. I love you too damn much."   
  
Tears sparked her eyes. "I know you aren't like them. That's the scariest part of all." She set down her drink on the bar and started for the door.   
  
"Sam, please," he said. "Don't go. Stop running."   
  
"I can't."   
  
"Dance with me then?" He said.    
  
"Huh?"   
  
"Dance with me. One time. That's all I ask. I can't pledge my love to another woman tomorrow if I haven't touched you one last time, if I haven't figured out a way to exorcise you from my system."   
  
Sam nodded shakily. "Okay ..." She watched him set down his own drink and then they met in the middle of the floor. His arms immediately found her waist and he drew her close to his body. She slid her arms up around his neck and looked up at him. He was so familiar, just the same beautiful, beautiful man in every way except that his eyes were so sad. So, so sad and she knew she had put that pain there.   
  
He reached out and brushed a strand of hair from her face and his touch felt so warm and wonderful. She had missed this; missed him.    
  
There was no music playing but they seemed to dance for hours, slowly swaying to their own rhythm and sound, before the ringing of the phone split the silence of the room.    
  
"You should get that," Sam said and pulled away from him first, of course. That was how it always was even when he was wearing his heart on his sleeve, begging her to stay and make them work.   
  
Jax nodded and moved over to the phone. "Hello?" he said.   
  
She watched his expression suddenly change from one of sadness to one of outright shock, surprise, anger and heartache. "No," he said. "Are you sure?"   
  
Sam watched him, longing to reach out to him, but once again, not daring. Finally he said, "Okay, we'll be right there," and hung up the phone.   
  
"What's wrong?" She asked.   
  
"It's your mom. Apparently she's taken an extreme turn for the worst and the doctors say she'll be lucky if she makes it through the night."   
  
Sam felt the breath immediately go out of her and her knees give in, but before she hit the floor, he was there, grasping her in his strong arms, embracing her and then outright lifting her up and cradling her to his chest. "Its okay, Sam, it's going to be okay, honey," he said.    
  
"How can it be?" She asked as tears poured down her face. "My mom is dying and I wasn't around to be there for her."   
  
"You're here now, Sam," he said and lightly pressed a kiss to her forehead before carrying her outside and settling her into the car so they could go see her mother for what would likely be the last time.    
  
TO BE CONTINUED.


End file.
